ENERGY and Power Development Minister Advocate Fortune
Chasi yesterday officially commissioned a 1-megawatt rooftop photovoltaic solar
plant for Schweppes Africa Holdings’ Harare factory where he called on the
private sector to invest more in such projects to ease the energy supply gap
facing the country.
A total of US$2 million was invested into the solar power
generation plant at the Willovale beverage production facility. The beverages
firm partnered with Distributed Power Africa (DPA), a renewable energy company
that engineers and constructs solar plants under an agreement that will see
Schweppes paying monthly instalments for the duration of the 15-year contract.
In his keynote address, Adv Chasi said Zimbabwe has
abundant potential for solar power generation, estimated at 100 gigawatts.
“I’m honoured to officially commission one of the single
largest solar rooftop projects in Sub Saharan Africa outside of South Africa
and Zimbabwe’s largest rooftop solar system ever. Zimbabwe is a country endowed
with abundant solar resources, the potential for solar photovoltaic alone is
estimated to be 100GW,” said the Minister.
“Our solar radiation resources are greater than 20 Mega
Joules per square metre per day. In simple terms, this is 100 000MW of
potential power.”
Adv Chasi said Zimbabwe’s peak demand stands at 1 800MW,
which is just 1,8 percent of the available potential that the country has in
solar photovoltaic.
“This is surely a statistic that calls for our industry and
financial sector to invest in solar energy,” he said.
Adv Chasi said Schweppes’ solar project has officially
become the flagship of rooftop solar systems in the country and another
milestone reached by DPA. The company has been seen building and commissioning
several rooftop projects around the country and in particular large rooftop and
carport projects like the Econet Willowvale project, which is 0,465MW, Granite
Side rooftop system (0,1MW), the Msasa rooftop and carport system (0,1MW) among
others.
Such energy solutions play a critical role in the realisation
of increased power supply security in the country, said Adv Chasi. He said
Government was committed to combating limited energy access and climate change.
“Our vision as a Ministry is to achieve universal access to
sustainable and modern energy in Zimbabwe by 2030. We need to do more to
harness these climate friendly resources,” the Minister said.
Currently, the southern African region is experiencing
increasing power demand to an extent that the Southern African Power Pool
(SAPP) is struggling to match demand and supply. Adv Chasi said Zimbabwe plays
an important role in integrating the various national grids of Sadc adding that
with an excess power generation capacity, the country will be able to meet its
domestic requirements and have a strong business case of becoming a net
exporter of power to neighbouring countries.
The Minister said Zimbabwe was going through the last
phases of the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) (2018-2020), with
projections that an upper middle-income economy may require up to 11 500MW of
electricity. He said the envisaged vision was achievable with enough electric
power from traditional and new renewable energy solutions.
“I am glad that Schweppes Holdings Africa, one of our
leading industrial entities, has taken the initiative to run its plant using a
renewable energy source.
“It will have a significant bearing in reducing the
nation’s carbon footprint, reducing demand on the national grid, increasing the
nation’s power supply security and help the country reduce power imports,” said
Adv Chasi.
He said it was imperative for the country to continue
supplying power to local industries as this drives production capacity, boosts
employment and empowers the economy through import substitution and export
trading among other factors.
Adv Chasi said energy was a key enabler for the whole
spectrum of the economy with economic growth and increased industrial
productivity hinged around availability of energy.
He called upon every Zimbabwean to use all energy forms
productively and efficiently.
Adv Chasi has said Government is crafting enabling energy
policies that seek to drive a culture of efficient use of energy and set
standards for efficient equipment in industry and all other sectors, including
the domestic sector.
Schweppes’ commercial and public affairs director, Mrs
Unaiswi Nyikadzino, said the project was engineered with a total of 2 446 solar
panels and has the capacity to produce 1 560 MW of annual energy, making it the
biggest rooftop solar power generation plant in Sub-Saharan Africa, excluding
South Africa. The project’s construction was started in June and completed this
month.
“As a group, we have committed ourselves to embedding
sustainability into our business operations. We have adopted and implemented
strict environmental policies that include tracking of carbon emissions to
enable reduction of our carbon footprint and to mitigate the negative effects
of climate change and today we are walking the talk.
“The solar plant is a huge milestone as we pursue
sustainable business in line with sustainable development goals,” Mrs
Nyikadzino said. Herald
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